Olympia Snowe Get’s It

Republican senator Olympia Snowe just made her valedictory in The Washington Post. She is quitting the United States Senate despite assured reelection this year. She hails from Maine. The Pine Tree State was formerly a Republican bastion. It’s solidly blue collar and resolutely independent. It now leans Democratic. Snowe understood how to represent a diverse electorate and move American forward. Given how Washington has changed she has given up trying. A very bad sign for the nation.

In her own words: “For change to occur, our leaders must understand that there is not only strength in compromise, courage in conciliation and honor in consensus-building — but also a political reward for following these tenets. That reward will be real only if the people demonstrate their desire for politicians to come together after the planks in their respective party platforms do not prevail.” In other words, we are all part of the problem.